Products · Product
Discord
Raised as a usability problem by 597 people on Hacker News over 11 years (2016–2026), in 353 threads.
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Every issue, all time, most people first
Nearly impossible to find anything using searchUnreviewed
20162026- Hard to find information stored in Discord servers, since search is poor and content is not discoverable2026-10-27
- Can't find things using Discord's search, and it has gotten worse2026-08-21
- Busy servers show a constant stream of confusing messages and nothing obvious happens2025-09-14
Chat history can't be searched meaningfully, hiding existing solutionsUnreviewed
20162026- Hard to understand; older links deep in chats are unfindable and important info gets buried2026-10-28
- Useful chat knowledge becomes practically impossible to find again after a few days2026-03-05
- Chat is unsearchable, confusing, and cluttered with blinking elements2026-02-10
Too many channels make it hard to know where messages belongUnreviewed
20162026- Too many channels, hard to know where messages belong2026-07-27
- Hard to find or keep information that isn't in active conversation2025-06-28
- Overwhelmed by channel count with no efficient way to see what's recent2024-07-26
App feels laggy to interact withUnreviewed
20162026- App is bloated and slow to respond2026-02-15
- Threads are terrible in Discord, worse than in Slack2025-03-07
- App is bloated and slow to use2024-04-02
Default notifications flood users when joining a serverUnreviewed
20162026- Gets hundreds of notifications, most irrelevant to the user, making it overwhelming2025-12-29
- Must manually change notification settings for every new server joined2025-03-31
- Users let hundreds of unread notifications and DMs pile up without knowing how to silence them2025-03-31
Login takes over 10 minutes of solving CAPTCHAs each timeUnreviewed
20162026- Stuck in a loop of repeated captchas during signup until giving up2026-07-07
- Posting silently blocked for a day after email verification2026-04-13
- Login requires many steps with captchas and emails, and the link expires in about five minutes2023-08-24
Long disjointed threads make knowledge hard to dig throughUnreviewed
20162026- Long disjointed message threads make knowledge hard to dig through, with replies often unused2026-01-04
- Threads don't let you pull existing related messages into them, so the feature feels incomplete2024-07-12
- Can't tell where new replies to their messages appear, so misses them2023-11-03
Useful info scrolls out of view and is impossible to find againUnreviewed
20162026- UI is confusing and older information becomes effectively unfindable2025-05-02
- Useful information is hidden in servers users must already have joined and know to find2025-01-13
- Strange UI, info scattered everywhere, and search makes it hard to find anything2023-07-08
Interface forces users to relearn simple thingsUnreviewed
20162026- Commenter finds the UI so bad it adds friction to using it2026-10-28
- Commenter finds the interface so unintuitive they must relearn simple things2024-03-02
- Interface is a disaster for most uses, so the commenter gave up trying2022-08-27
Busy channels with simultaneous discussions are hard to follow without threadsUnreviewed
20162026- Past discussions are effectively lost and threads are hard to follow2023-06-20
- Threading UI is hard to use for many concurrent unrelated discussions2023-02-10
- Conversations get lost quickly, so earlier discussions can't be found or revisited2022-02-12
Server icons look alike, so servers can't be told apartUnreviewed
20162026- Friends list icon looks identical to server and add-server icons, confusing users2025-03-29
- Server icons without text labels are slow and hard to identify, and hover tooltips don't help2025-02-23
- Server icons look alike, so users can't tell servers apart2022-12-07
Text chat is slow and janky when moving between channelsUnreviewed
20162026- Text chat is slow and janky when moving between channels on every device2024-09-02
- Messages get pushed off screen by fast-moving chat and emojis before people read them2024-03-02
- Switching channels feels glitchy and sluggish compared to native apps2022-08-17
Forced into a phone number verification wall right after logging inUnreviewed
20162026- Logging in only shows a phone verification screen, blocking use of the account2025-10-09
- Users get forced into a phone number verification wall right after logging in2024-07-13
- Web login now forces phone number entry the user refuses to give2022-09-15
True mute requires separately suppressing @everyone and @hereUnreviewed
20162026- Blocked and muted messages still show up in the interface, and the user cannot ignore them once aware2025-03-31
- Users must manually mute many channels in a server to avoid unwanted ones2025-03-06
- New servers default to @everyone notifications, spamming users who must manually mute them2023-06-15
Starting the app and sending a message takes around 30 secondsUnreviewed
20162026- Has to wait about 12 seconds for the app to load2026-08-21
- Discord takes over 10 seconds to open2026-01-06
- Takes about 10 seconds to open, so users wait before doing anything2023-03-01
Search only finds exact words, missing partial matches like hell for helloUnreviewed
20162026- Exact-text searches return messages with different words because of fuzzy word grouping2026-10-27
- Exact-word searches return stemmed variants, and symbols like ":3" are ignored2026-10-27
- Search misses partial words, typos and URLs, so users must scroll manually2025-03-06
Voice latency makes timing turn-taking and interrupting hardUnreviewed
20162026- Audio delay makes conversations exhausting as people keep interrupting each other2023-02-02
- Voice chat latency makes it hard to time turn-taking and interrupt naturally2021-11-25
- Voice chat becomes nearly unusable with more than 10-20 active talkers2021-04-20
Red badges on everything make it hard to find what mattersUnreviewed
20162026- Normal users can barely figure out Discord and chase red badges across the UI2026-10-11
- Red unread badge makes it impossible to jump to messages, forcing endless scrolling2026-01-21
- Default notifications make everything unread with red badges; @everyone mentions still highlight even when suppressed2023-07-17
Hard to find questions among huge chat volume and many channelsUnreviewed
20162026- Can't keep up with chat across many servers and channels; questions get lost2024-03-02
- Support server is incredibly hard to search for bug fixes in massive chat channels2023-06-22
- Joining and finding one's bearing in chat communities is costly and exhausting2023-06-19
Must click back and forth since channels can't open simultaneouslyUnreviewed
20162026- Too many messages and channels to scan; must click each channel to keep up2023-05-13
- Must repeatedly click back and forth because multiple channels can't be open at once2021-08-26
- Ctrl+K only searches channels, so quick switching back and forth is hard2020-10-20
Scrolling is extremely slow and search can't jump to message contextUnreviewed
20162026- Opens old messages instead of newest, and jumping to newest requires scrolling far2023-10-14
- Paging through old messages is very slow, with long waits between pages2023-06-19
- Endless scrolling loads only 10 messages, breaking page search and slowing scrolling2023-03-07
Channel list can't be resized and crowds out the chat windowUnreviewed
20162026- Sidebar can't be collapsed, so chat area gets squeezed when side-by-side2021-08-28
- Server list unusable without a scroll wheel, channel list not resizable, lags in voice chat2020-10-19
- Channel list can't be resized and crowds out the main chat window, making the app unusable when wide2020-05-14
Notification history is buried and deleted messages vanish from itUnreviewed
20162026- Notification history is buried and deleted messages disappear from it2024-09-02
- Posts disappear into a black hole; past useful messages can't be found again2023-09-22
- Deleted message leaves a notification on the phone but vanishes from chat history2022-11-21
Getting a role requires hopping through many subchannelsUnreviewed
20162026- Getting a role to join conversations requires hopping through many subchannels, so the user gave up2021-08-26
- Creating a side conversation needs a new channel and fiddly per-user permission setup2020-10-19
- Can't leave or join channels as needed in text chat2018-08-29
Muting a server silently blocks direct mentionsUnreviewed
20162026- Must suppress @everyone mentions separately for every server2023-11-02
- Hard to configure notifications; muting a server also silently blocked direct mentions2022-07-14
- Can't find a way to notify only on direct mentions without going through every channel2019-08-11
Search is useless and users can't authenticate to join communitiesUnreviewed
20162026- Communities can't be found by search engines, and in-app search is only reachable after joining2025-03-06
- Invite requirements make finding communities horrible and search is terrible2024-11-26
- Search is useless and users can't get authenticated to join communities2024-05-31
Constant activity with no easy way to catch up on missed messagesUnreviewed
20162026- Hard to get an overview of conversations and make sense of missed activity2022-08-30
- Unindexed ephemeral chat makes it chaotic to catch up on missed messages2022-06-09
- Too much constant activity and no easy way to catch up on missed messages2020-11-19
Belonging to many servers becomes overwhelming to keep track ofUnreviewed
20162026- Hard to keep up; must click through many servers and channels each login2022-09-14
- Hard to manage over 30 servers at once2022-01-10
- Belonging to multiple servers quickly becomes overwhelming to keep track of2021-08-26
Unreviewed issues were grouped by machine: Claude Haiku labelled each comment as a usability complaint, named what it's about and summed up the problem in a line, and a small model grouped similar problems. Nobody has checked them by hand. Expect mistakes.
The newest 50 complaints
- Commenter finds the UI so bad it adds friction to using it2026-10-28
- Notification sounds get changed each year and reverted to opt-in, with settings not syncing across clients2026-10-28
- Hard to understand; older links deep in chats are unfindable and important info gets buried2026-10-28
- Exact-text searches return messages with different words because of fuzzy word grouping2026-10-27
- Textbox is cluttered with Nitro upsell buttons, and file picker now needs an extra click2026-10-27
- Hard to find information stored in Discord servers, since search is poor and content is not discoverable2026-10-27
- Exact-word searches return stemmed variants, and symbols like ":3" are ignored2026-10-27
- Search is slow, results squeezed into a tiny sidebar, and rate-limits after about 25 pages2026-10-15
- Normal users can barely figure out Discord and chase red badges across the UI2026-10-11
- Has many UX and performance problems2026-10-11
- Too much empty space and verbose UI, needs full screen to read messages2026-10-11
- Has to wait about 12 seconds for the app to load2026-08-21
- Can't find things using Discord's search, and it has gotten worse2026-08-21
- New users find the interface alien; a coworker's first use was a nightmare2026-07-27
- Too many channels, hard to know where messages belong2026-07-27
- Overall interface feels off, with vague sense of UX nagging2026-07-27
- Notifications persist daily with no way to disable them2026-07-27
- Text formatting is awkward and limits roleplay interaction2026-07-22
- Feels slow and bloated to use2026-07-15
- Stuck in a loop of repeated captchas during signup until giving up2026-07-07
- Commenter finds Discord's forum-style layout unusable to them2026-07-02
- Interface is so horrid it makes people question using it for anything beyond chat2026-05-21
- Website overrides the browser's Ctrl+E shortcut, opening the emoji menu instead2026-04-14
- Posting silently blocked for a day after email verification2026-04-13
- Setting up a Discord bot requires knowing OAuth and token permissions up front, with no development mode2026-03-20
- Web interface becomes extremely slow to interact with2026-03-13
- Useful chat knowledge becomes practically impossible to find again after a few days2026-03-05
- Spammers create new accounts faster than moderators can ban them2026-02-24
- Joining a server with more than a handful of people is a nightmare and practically unusable2026-02-17
- App is bloated and slow to respond2026-02-15
- Appealing a ban through the app gives a generic system error; support tickets auto-close2026-02-13
- Messages and servers get flagged as adult unpredictably, even without porn2026-02-12
- Gets phone-walled or banned at signup, and appeals are auto-denied2026-02-12
- Forced to enter a phone number if not fingerprintable enough, like a dark pattern2026-02-12
- Returning users must follow chains of abandoned room links to find the current room2026-02-10
- Login page refreshes repeatedly on mobile and gives no explanation of why access fails2026-02-10
- Chat is unsearchable, confusing, and cluttered with blinking elements2026-02-10
- Randomly hides messages after a connection-not-secure warning, and fixing it is nearly impossible2026-02-10
- Hard to lurk or catch up unless you're always online2026-02-09
- Link warning popup appears for every new site and can't be turned off2026-02-09
- Discord is incredibly user hostile, with no public index of servers2026-02-08
- Scrolling chat history makes the whole app stutter2026-02-06
- Red unread badge makes it impossible to jump to messages, forcing endless scrolling2026-01-21
- New users must navigate verification essays, self-assign roles, and wait for moderators to approve them2026-01-19
- Commenter finds Discord bloated and grating to use2026-01-07
- Discord takes over 10 seconds to open2026-01-06
- Long disjointed message threads make knowledge hard to dig through, with replies often unused2026-01-04
- Search is unusable, notification controls underpowered, pop-ups float over and block the interface2025-12-30
- Gets hundreds of notifications, most irrelevant to the user, making it overwhelming2025-12-29
- Instagram Reels lose video and show as thumbnails; TikTok shows static images2025-12-28